Hey guys so I have some cannabis left over from my week long fighting and camping excursion I briefly talked about in my last post. So I'm packing that mother fucker up and getting ripped to give a real update. Sorry it's been so long bros. Did you like the Le Scrawl cover I posted?
For sure a band I can't listen to all the time, much like Fugazi or the Deftones, but Gojira is one that always get my blood stirring and metal ear perking up. "From Sirius to Mars" is their third full-length album and it came out around seven years ago. They also released "The Way of All Flesh" in 2008, which I thought was a huge fucking disappointment. To be expected though, people were giving out Metallica and Meshuggah as comparisons. Those are correct assessments however and is probably a contributor to why their sound evolved on the 2008 follow up and on their new album "L'Enfant Sauvage". Which is French for something, who fucking speaks French today?
Sonically they most resemble early Metallica in song length, format and some atmosphere as well as Strapping Young Lad for production, atmosphere and volume of emotive energy. Gojira and SYL straddle that line of progressive and thrash where Metallica early on were straight thrashers giving little thought to studio time and dynamics. Gojira utilized their time, in what I'm assuming is a secluded studio somewhere in the rolling green hills of France, to create a soaring epic display of melody, song writing and fucking heavy metal in their grandiose masterpiece, "From Mars to Sirius". Like SYL, Gojira do a perfect mix of crushing metal riffs with technicality, clean singing and harmony, then they find a heavy groove and just carve that mother out. This technique recalls SYL again as well as Pantera whom Gojira have a lesser affinity for. It's so beautiful to listen to after you've taken five or six huge BRs(bong rips). My favourite tracks can be narrowed down to "From the Sky", "The Heaviest Matter Of the Universe" and "In the Wilderness". They do a good job of displaying all the things the band is capable of doing well.
Like I mentioned earlier, I can't listen to Gojira all the time like I can Insect Warfare or Black Sabbath or the Bad Brains. I have to be in a particular "mood" to really get into it. Maybe it's partially because of the clean singing with just straight up slow parts intermixed with the mid paced riffs amongst the blitzing metal shrapnel. Too much filler and not enough shrapnel makes for a boring hand grenade, catch my drift Deftones? Gojira sort of lye in the middle between Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me if that makes any sense. Maybe it's the overuse of that fucking click-track, pro-tools out, sterile triggered double bass. I can not STAND it when metal bands ruin a perfectly good concept like mid paced double bass and man does Mario Duplantier ruin it. Take a fucking break from that shit man, learn something new and interesting. There's even a part in "Heaviest Matter.." where he could play a real short sustained blast, but no. He plays all fucking mid paced and like a girl. Not okay. Not metal enough!
With all of these minor quirks, good and bad, this album is still hauntingly beautiful and utterly crushing all at once. Except the song "Unicorn" and "World to Come". Delete them and never bother wasting your time. Nevertheless this is a great album for getting stoned and going on long bike rides or epic road trips. Do yourself a favor, download this and give it two or three full listens before casting it aside like you did all those old Fear Factory CDs we wanted to be good, but really never were.
For sure a band I can't listen to all the time, much like Fugazi or the Deftones, but Gojira is one that always get my blood stirring and metal ear perking up. "From Sirius to Mars" is their third full-length album and it came out around seven years ago. They also released "The Way of All Flesh" in 2008, which I thought was a huge fucking disappointment. To be expected though, people were giving out Metallica and Meshuggah as comparisons. Those are correct assessments however and is probably a contributor to why their sound evolved on the 2008 follow up and on their new album "L'Enfant Sauvage". Which is French for something, who fucking speaks French today?
Sonically they most resemble early Metallica in song length, format and some atmosphere as well as Strapping Young Lad for production, atmosphere and volume of emotive energy. Gojira and SYL straddle that line of progressive and thrash where Metallica early on were straight thrashers giving little thought to studio time and dynamics. Gojira utilized their time, in what I'm assuming is a secluded studio somewhere in the rolling green hills of France, to create a soaring epic display of melody, song writing and fucking heavy metal in their grandiose masterpiece, "From Mars to Sirius". Like SYL, Gojira do a perfect mix of crushing metal riffs with technicality, clean singing and harmony, then they find a heavy groove and just carve that mother out. This technique recalls SYL again as well as Pantera whom Gojira have a lesser affinity for. It's so beautiful to listen to after you've taken five or six huge BRs(bong rips). My favourite tracks can be narrowed down to "From the Sky", "The Heaviest Matter Of the Universe" and "In the Wilderness". They do a good job of displaying all the things the band is capable of doing well.
Like I mentioned earlier, I can't listen to Gojira all the time like I can Insect Warfare or Black Sabbath or the Bad Brains. I have to be in a particular "mood" to really get into it. Maybe it's partially because of the clean singing with just straight up slow parts intermixed with the mid paced riffs amongst the blitzing metal shrapnel. Too much filler and not enough shrapnel makes for a boring hand grenade, catch my drift Deftones? Gojira sort of lye in the middle between Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me if that makes any sense. Maybe it's the overuse of that fucking click-track, pro-tools out, sterile triggered double bass. I can not STAND it when metal bands ruin a perfectly good concept like mid paced double bass and man does Mario Duplantier ruin it. Take a fucking break from that shit man, learn something new and interesting. There's even a part in "Heaviest Matter.." where he could play a real short sustained blast, but no. He plays all fucking mid paced and like a girl. Not okay. Not metal enough!
With all of these minor quirks, good and bad, this album is still hauntingly beautiful and utterly crushing all at once. Except the song "Unicorn" and "World to Come". Delete them and never bother wasting your time. Nevertheless this is a great album for getting stoned and going on long bike rides or epic road trips. Do yourself a favor, download this and give it two or three full listens before casting it aside like you did all those old Fear Factory CDs we wanted to be good, but really never were.
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